Scene #2267: Stay A While, And Listen

Owner	Pose
Mortimer Balman	Having been gone for almost a week, Mortimer and his crew have returned to Equestria from their homeworld of Poqmori. They seem.. /Tired/. Not miserable, not angry, not sad or somber or maudlin. Just /exhausted/. Emotionally, mentally, physically. But for any ponies that expressed concern he would assure them he was fine, that he had simply been horrendously busy the last few days, he'd be fine with some rest. Plenty of food purchased- and some treats from the Cakes, because you can't buy groceries without stopping by the Sugarcube Corner and picking up some damn treats unless you have no SOUL- plenty of beer and cider and ale from the local breweries and the Apples' ranch. And they all retreated inside and shut the doors- the house was almost uncharacteristically silent. No sound of a radio or TV or strange music, no wraithly giggles haunting the streets as Nettle searches for a meal, even Ulbrecht hasn't been seen except to trot off into the Everfree for potty time and back.
Karian Icefang	Starting to worry a bit, Karian made his way over to Mort's place, Ygdril as always by his side. A loud knocking would echo, as the massive hoofed form of the ponified Karian made himself known. "Mort! Where are you old man?!"
Mortimer Balman	After a few moments, a very tired-looking Switchbait opens the door, floating not under the power of his wings but rather his psychic powers. "<Ah, Lord Icefang. Do come in, sir. I've just finished preparing some tea and there are cakes ready. Or would you prefer beer?>" He starts floating away. Inside Mortimer is in his easy chair in the living room, in pony form, splayed out on it with Falstaff and Reder and Roll all sleeping on top of him- Ulbrecht, now almost the size of a Leman Russ main battle tank, can no longer fit inside the house and can only stick his head in through a specially made window near the chair so he can rest his head by where Mort is resting. Nettle is settled on Ulbrecht's head, her socky body laid out so much that she almost looks /flat/, nesting in the giant wolf's headfur- she'd be invisible were it not for the soft blue glow of her lidded eyes.
Karian Icefang	"I'd more like to know why you all look like you've been through one of my old sargeants training exersizes." Karian says. He looks over, making his way towards mort immidiately. "Though tea sounds good, thank you, switch."
Mortimer Balman	A tray full of tea and coffee cakes floats out along with Switchbait, who lowers himself over into a crook under Mortimer's foreleg and, with a mandible-clicking yawn, settles in to rest, folding his wings in behind himself carefully. "<No trouble at all, Lord Icefang, do not hesitate to ask if you require more, sir.>" Mortimer looks over at Karian for a few moments, rubbing at his chin and adjusting so his horn isn't stabbing the chair. "I'm not sure you'd really understand an explanation, Karian. No offense. But.. Hm." He looks thoughtful for a moment. "Well.. Lute, of all people, managed to find our homeworld- Poqmori. But.. It has unified at the end of the civilization I was born into."
Karian Icefang	Karian settles in, taking a bit of tea for himself. "So you've returned to your home at the end of time. I don't see why it would leave you so...drained. What exactly did you see...what happened?" He asks, watching closely. Concern riddled his one good eye, as Ygdril pads over to check on Ulbrecht.
Mortimer Balman	Mortimer shakes his head. "Not the end of /time/. The end of /my people/. Imagine.." He thinks for a moment, eyes closing. "Imagine, after you served as long as say, Bjorn had. Maybe even longer. Imagine you served and survived that long.. And then one day, the Emperor of Man woke up." He reaches out to nab a beer and sip at it. "Imagine that he comes to you and says "Thank you Karian. You've done a good job! Your services are no longer needed. You may be about your business and do as you please. Good day." And then he left you there to your own devices. But everyone else was gone- you'd outlived all your Battle Brothers, you'd outlived your entire family line, your brothers' family lines. You'd outlived /Fenris itself/ and it no longer resembled anything you knew. All you have left is Ygdril.." Beersip. "But then you went back to Fenris after years of trying to find new purpose, and you found a memorial to your fallen Brothers."
Karian Icefang	Karian rumbles a bit at that, nodding. "I see. That....is something I can not even begin to imagine." He says. His hoof carefully moves to grasp his old friends, trying to do something supportive. Times like there were very much a curse, as space marines really didn't know how to be without a battle to fight, or a war to die in.
Mortimer Balman	Mortimer sighs a bit and leans back, turning his head to look at Karian. "It's strange for me to look at you sometimes. You who comes from a culture that /glorifies/ war and death, worshipping a man who hangs by a mechanical noose less than a hair's breadth from the Dusknoir's doorstep. Boggles my mind now, that I look back upon all the men and women in my war that I couldn't save or had to send off to their grisly, painful deaths- that anyone can /crave/ war the way you are trained to." He'd tilt his head back and stare the ceiling. "..I miss them now, Karian. I always missed them but now it feels so much more.. /There/, you know? An unshakeable feeling that I am simply waiting for death to find me so that I can see them again.."
Karian Icefang	"Every survivor feels that way, Mort." Karian says. He offers up a smile as best as he could too. "But to think like that is not healthy. You should find a calling, something that you want to do. In my case...I feel every loss my company takes. Each person is a family member, and their loss is mourned. But we don't focus on the loss. We focus on what we gained from that person. If we were to lose Lukas, we would not mourn him. Rather we would celebrate him, his humor, even his curious love of pranks."
Mortimer Balman	Mort looks over at Karian with a slightly scrunched face. "I know, Karian. You think I didn't do that? I did that for years.. But I have existed far longer than any mortal should. "Live until you are slain"- that was the Contract I made with my Gods. And I just kept surviving. Too stupid to die I suppose, until Annu at least. Thought I was done then till the Emperor dragged me back.." The scrunching faded. "I do not feel /guilt/ anymore, Karian. I have already dealt with that. But I have outlived /everyone/. /Everything/. And they are waiting for me on the Other Side. But I promised her.. That I would live as long as I could. No matter what, I would survive as long as I physically could. And so I will. But that does not stop me from being /tired/."
Karian Icefang	Karian nods. "Aye...And people say we're hard to understand." He says, leaning back. "Where exactly did you go? I'm curious." He asks. He looks over to Ygdril, seeing him trying to urge Ulbrecht into chasing him about some.
Mortimer Balman	Ulbrecht's tail can be heard thumping loudly against the ground outside. But he looks first to Mortimer, who plucks Nettle from his head. "Go, play." Head disappears outside and loud, playful barking can be heard. Nettle is deposited to Mortimer's head, her eyes have not twitched in the slightest. "It was shortly after a massive Ditto attack on Ginseng- the capital city of Contiki, the most powerful nation at the time as a result of lucky politics and economic policies- that the Goddesses approached me and several other people. I was one of the strongest morphs alive at that point in time- not sure how, I just /was/. We were taken by the Goddesses to a divergent timeline- a place that Might Have Been but Not Yet Was. We rescued two of the Lost Gods.." Mortimer's eyes narrow a bit as he remembers. "An empty and barren timeline. The Ditto had won out in this one- all organic life assimilated into the Swarms. The only non-Ditto life that remained was Manaphy, the Ever-Drowning King, and Shaymin, Gracious Lord of Clouds. They were weak, dying, but not yet gone. So I went.. And I drew a Swarm the size of an ocean away from them, along with an arrogant blowhard of a man known as Race- an Arcanine-morph- and together we were able to lure the Ditto away from the Lost Gods so that the others could grab them.. I wasn't able to get away." FLASHBACK SEQUENCE. "Is that all you've got?! IS THAT IT?!" Thousands of faces that never stopped smiling, surging toward him as he climbed up higher and higher throughout a ruined skyscraper. The vast mass of purplish-pink goo slithered around the towering edifice, following and spraying its /disease/ at him, even as he burned the faces away. But he ran out of room atop the roof. A wave, like that of the open seas, stood towering above him, spreading out so as to block the sun and clouds. The mass formed into bodies and pieces of bodies with sharp claws and fangs and spikes and teeth. And then it all came crashing down upon him even as he screamed out flames hot enough to melt the roof around him. They burned so brightly, their agonized screams so loud that his eardrums shattered, but they crashed into him all the same. Ripping, biting, clawing, gnawing, tearing, stabbing, gripping, smashing, they ruined him. Gouged his eyes out and broke his tail, ripped it out. And then came the infection. The sound of a billion billion droning voices as his own cellular structure was slowly being broken down and melting..
Karian Icefang	Karian listens quietly for the moment at that. "Sounds like the damned orks..." He admits. But he quickly quets down again, letting the morph continue his tale.
Mortimer Balman	Switchbait looks up, levitating Mortimer's pipe over to him, so that he can light it and smoke. "Thank you." "<Of course, sir.>" Mortimer shook his head at Karian. "Hardly like the Orks at all, Karian. Closer to the Tyranids or those Borg creatures. A vast hivemind network spanning the entire planet- somewhere between true telepathy and radio waves. Infecting everyone they could with a disease that broke their genetic and cellular structures down until they were a Ditto too, and then the Swarm took over their minds.." He shook his head again, and puffed on his pipe some. "The Goddesses came and took my broken, ruined body before I too was added to the Swarm. Mew healed my wounds and told me how proud she was of the job I'd done.. Then I went back to my own time for a while. But only a year or so after the fact, they came back. Shaymin asked if I could do them further service, and brought me before the Three. Mew, Celebi, and Jirachi. I was offered a Contract.. Enforce the will of the Goddesses, live until I was slain. I would go all across the timeline and divergences that Never Were to help ensure an optimal outcome of History. ...When I was not "working", I was kept in a space Between Seconds. A place where Time Is Not. It was a dark and silent place, but I was never alone- my crew here were always with me, slumbering a sort of half-sleep. We stayed there for small eternities, as we waited for our next mission.."
Karian Icefang	"Sounds like statis sleep." Karian says softly, listening to every word. He understood most of it, and related what he didn't to things of his own world.
Mortimer Balman	Mortimer hoofwobbles. "Not quite but close. Time /passes/ for stasis sleep. Time Did Not Pass while /we/ slept. It's.. A different sensation. The only thing keeping us all from insanity was the affection of the Goddesses. I'm not sure how it works but it did."
Karian Icefang	Karian nods and keeps listening. "I see....please, continue." He says, sipping down more of that quite good tea.
Mortimer Balman	Mort puffs on his pipe some more. "...Well what else do you wanna know, man?" Sipping at his beer some more too, and then reaching out for a coffee cake. "I can't tell you how long I actually /did/ all this.. Mortal memory has limitations. At least.. Twice I had to go through what we would call "Compression" so that I could open enough thoughts up in my brain-space so I'd /have/ space again. Went through it once mere here in the Multiverse.. Kinda.. Makes things all blend together. Battle after battle, they all become blurs. Days become weeks become years. I can't even tell time anymore without assistance."
Karian Icefang	"I don't think you've ever told me much about your companions. Can you tell me about them? How you met and such. I'd like to know the rest of your pack." Karian says.
Mortimer Balman	A pause, and then Mortimer picks up Roll and reaches into her tail-pouch, rummaging around. He pulls out a book, the label probably impossible for Karian to read unless he knows Aramaic, and sits up a little- careful not to knock his slumbering pokemon off. "Let's see.." He'd stop at a page, and put it on a table. High definition pictures of a wide variety of pokemorphs. They appear to be young- none of them older than eighteen at most- there are some humans in the picture too. The oldest person in the picture is a human man somewhere in his thirties. "This is our company, right after boot camp- Fifth Assault, Shadad Company- the Devastators. That short little Cyndaquil there is me, standin' with my squad. We were part of the 3992nd General Infantry Battalion, got assigned to Captain John Jacob Schmitt there, the older man. He was an extremely powerful psychic-type... Psyker. Powerful and skilled enough to give one of your Librarians a run for their money. An incredible man.. We were as his own sons and daughters in his eyes, and in ours he was a father away from our fathers. He.." Mort pauses for a moment. "He sacrificed himself to save all of us, when we got ambushed by a massive column of Ditto out looking for officers to assimilate.." FLASHBACK SEQUENCE. Hundreds of marines, walking through the jungles. Sudden explosions of lightning and fire. "GET DOWN!" Came the Captain's roar, "COVER! NOW!" everyone dove behind a hill, hunkering down until they could reorganize and then start firing back with spells and psychic blasts and other pokemon tricks. The radio man shouting into his phone, trying desperately to ring up HQ- they'd walked right into a trap and needed support. "Can anybody fucking read me?! Captain nobody's answering!" "Keep trying! We need air support! Anyone with a Heavy 'mon, deploy now before they rip us apart!" A pair of Rhyhorns and a Snorlax popped out of their balls, lumbering forth and tearing down trees to throw them in front of the soldiers. A bolt of lightning tore across the ditch and the trees, throwing men and the great Snorlax aside like a bombshell. "FUCK! Captain! Captain look! They got the Lord of Storms?!" A great mass of Ditto in the shape of Zapdos floated just over the hill, blasting out horrific bolts of lightning. Captain's face went pale. Another bolt tore through the lines, throwing the then E-5 Sergeant Balman to the gruond, dazed. He could see the Lieutenant coming over the ditch line. "YOU WANT ME?! YOU WANT US THAT BAD?! THEN TAKE US! C'MON! TAKE ME!" He held a staff that threw out massive balls of fire and dirt, he was a warlock. "FUCKING TAKE ME!" The Captain practically screamed, "GODS DAMN IT LIEUTENANT GET DO-" He didn't even know what caused the explosion, only that a second later, the lieutenant's dead eyes were staring into his. Schmitt's hands yanked him off the ground, he could barely hear the screaming. "Balman! Can you hear me Sergeant?! We're not getting air support! Take the men and /go/. They want an officer so bad, they'll get an officer." "But.. But Captain?!" "NOW, SERGEANT!" "Y.. Yes sir!" Captain Schmitt made the /ground/ shake from how much power he drew about himself, making shields and blades of raw psychic energy to draw away the Swarm while his marines crawled away. Mortimer turned back, hoping that the Captain would follow, only to see a wave of pink smashing itself against an invisible shield. Schmitt was laughing the whole time.. And then everything turned white, the world seeming to vanish for a second as the Captain self-destructed- denying the enemy his mind and simultaneously killing dozens, maybe hundreds of them.
Karian Icefang	Karian nods. "Always found some psykers to be decent folk, even if they may tear a hole into the warp." Then, he spots mort. "That was YOU?! I apologize, but I can never imagine you that small...or that not on fire."
Mortimer Balman	Mortimer nods. "Aye, that's me there. First stage evolution. Cyndaquil. I never made it to Quilava for some reason or another. It wasn't until long after the War that I actually evolved into a Typhlosion like you see now.. Very rare occurrence, actually." A hoof brushes over the other figures in the pictures. "There was no "Warp" for us to worry about, p'raps that's why we had better Psykers. Much more ability to train and perfect your art, much easier to do without the constant threat of daemons in yer head.. I think I'm about eighteen in that picture there. I went in when I was seventeen- my best friend Charlie helped me avoid the Draft Men so I could get to a recruiter's office and get the sign-on bonus.."
Karian Icefang	"I see." Karian says. He grins as he hears about young mort joining the army and nods. "Even young, you were a brave soul. No surprise there." He admits. He grimmaces a little though, a memory of his own floating through his head.
Mortimer Balman	There was a shrug. "My Ma never wanted me to be a Marine, actually. All six of my older brothers had joined the Corps at some point or another. She had too, and my father was a Marine Warlock. She wanted /one/ son that wouldn't be some damned jarhead.. She was /pissed/ when Charlie came over to get me. Even threatened him with a knife, saying I was going to be more than a mere soldier. But.. Alphonse, and Falstaff, they calmed her down. Alphonse promised he'd make sure I would stay out of trouble, I'd come home alive.." A pause, a sip of his beer. "And I did.. But Alphonse didn't.. Neither did Falstaff, or Brendan, or Mikhael, and my brother in law Reuben died too.."
Karian Icefang	Karian nods again. "Aye....I know how that feels all too well..." He says. But he opted not to elaborate, at least not unless his friend asked. "I would have liked to meet your brothers...If they were anything like you, they were formidable people.
Mortimer Balman	Mort nods with some enthusiasm there. "Oh yea. You'da loved Falstaff. There's a reason I named this cranky old Absol after him. Fiercest man I ever knew until I met your Kruger was Falstaff. In battle he fought like a man possessed. Brendan was a genius at demolitions engineering- nothin' he couldn't blow up if you gave him an hour and a half ton of TNT. Alphonse.. He was a great man. He was awful disappointed in me, when I didn't make into the Red Berets- those were our most elite soldiers- but he knew it wasn't wholly my fault, so he didn't hold it against me long."
Karian Icefang	"But you did make it into a group of elite soldiers in the end." Karian corrects. He smirks and drains down the rest of the tea, aiming for a bit more. "Falstaff and Kruger may very well have gotten into fights over who was the better soldier, I imagine."
Mortimer Balman	Mortimer handwobbles. "I became a pawn of the Goddesses, sure. But for the duration of my War, I was General Infantry. The very best of the expendable, they used to call us. ...Which is why we always bore the brunt of losses." His gaze lingers over the picture again, pulling out another one to stare at. A squad of six people. Himself, a Machoke woman who is incredibly well built in all ways, an even shorter and markedly pretty-looking male Pichumorph, a Kadabra woman with bandaids all over her face, a Houndourmorph man who is laughing as he hoists Mortimer up on his shoulders, and a wiry-looking little human man who's kneeling in front of the others with the biggest shit-eating grin on his face.
Karian Icefang	Karian narrowed his eye. "Not what I meant, mort. Your a Space Wolf....well...more of a drake, but your one of us." He says with a smirk. Though he also eyes the kadabra suspisciously. "Hmm.....I've seen this type of morph before. But a larger form...decidedly powerful at that." But then he nods and sighs. "Reminds me of my old pack...before the ambush years ago."
Mortimer Balman	Mort chuckled some at that, lightening up a bit. "Kind of you to say Karian, but if the Space Wolves ever did that in an official capacity you'd risk reigniting your old conflict with the Inquisition. I would be a craven man indeed to risk endangering the lives of my dear young blood pups, even if they would enjoy having me 'round." He'd shake his head, then tap his hoof on the Kadabra girl. "She's a Kadabra, all of them were morphs in my world, Psychic-type Pokemorphs. Her name was Kieri.. Incredible woman. Not actually a Groudan either, she was Contikese. Contiki refused to join our War because they were busy keeping Terne from getting as bad as Peth was. But Kieri, and a lot of other young Contikans, came and joined us. Citing Ghiyath's sacrifice, they joined our militaries and fought alongside us.. Even when they were older than us, they would always call us Big Brother or Big Sister.. Kieri herself was actually a noble, you know. The nobility had ceased to have any real /power/ in global politics or economics, but they had minor celebrity status. Kieri was the youngest of her family.." FLASHBACK "The children of Contiki have not forgotten the death of noble Ghiyath! We will stand with our honored brothers and sisters in Grouda!" The young Kadabra girl slammed her fist onto a table, standing at the forefront of a gaggle of Contikese youths, who all shouted their agreements. "Now sign us up, or do I need to find someone more important than you?!" Mortimer and his fellow recruits watched as they got off the bus, not yet having been lined up before the Drill Instructors. The man at the gate held up his hands, "Whoa, okay! Okay! Just.. Can you please stay here for just five minutes while I fetch the base commander?" "We will wait." She folder her arms under her chest and stood patiently. The Contikans saw the Groudans filing off the buses and started shouting and cheering at them. They were eager to stand with the Groudans, and the Groudans were happy to have them all there. "Onii-sama! Onee-sama! We will not fail any of you! I swear it!"
Karian Icefang	Karian nods at that as well. "I see. But even with that, it didn't look like her, A Kabadra. Do they have another form, like you said you came from a cyndaquil? It alarmed me that while whatever being was in my head, it actually put the beast within to rest."
Mortimer Balman	Mortimer nods. "Yea.. Abra, Kadabra, and Alakazam. Abras aren't very strong, but they can teleport like hell. Kadabras are quite potent. Alakazams.. Their minds are so over-evolved they can comprehend and 'see' things that we can't even begin to dream of. Without going mad, either. Once they evolve into Alakazams, they frequently join these.. Monastic orders for lack of a better word, and move away from the rest of civilization. Most of'em go on to the hidden 'kazam temples that are chock full of historical data. Kieri.. ...She didn't want to evolve into a 'kazam, but after I disappeared as the Goddesses' errand boy, she went and worked to reach that stage.."
Karian Icefang	"hrm.....I think that it was an Alakazam, them. For whatever reason, it seemed intruiged by me..curious. Perhaps I should go to one of these orders and find out why." Karian muses aloud, trying to find a meaning for the strange visit on the psychic level.
Mortimer Balman	Mortimer shook his head. "All gone now, Karian. The only Alakazams you'll find on Poqmori now are part of the uncivilized and often barbaric tribal peoples scattered across the planet. I told you, our civilization ended. All that remains is history.. But eventually, a new one may rise up. In a few centuries perhaps."
Karian Icefang	"Aye.....But it still does not put me at ease that a potentially tribal 'Kazam probed my mind. What would you suggest? Part of me wants to investigate the tribes, but I do not know the right course." Karian says. He looks to mort, hoping for his sound advice.
Mortimer Balman	Mortimer looks somewhat puzzled. "When and where did you meet an Alakazam? I don't think you've yet /been/ to my world, and I don't think the GenShips are anywhere near the Imperium- hopefully- you prolly met one of the feral animalistic 'Kazams from one of the Pokemon Islands."
Karian Icefang	"I have no idea...It happened the other day as I went to half-sleep." Karian explains. "Could it have felt the beast and tried to help?"
Mortimer Balman	Mortimer shrugged. "I.. Have absolutely no idea, Karian. Alakazams were pretty well completely inscrutable beings. Maybe one did try to help. For all I know a GenShip passed over Equestria but decided not to land and one saw your mind and calmed it. Or maybe a Trainer was here with a Pokemon Isles feral 'Kazam and it saw you and helped."
Karian Icefang	"It may be worth investigating. If it approaches again, I will try to communicate with it...or at least find it's intention." Karian reasons aloud.
Mortimer Balman	Mortimer nods. "Yeah.. Yeah that sounds like a good idea." He goes quiet after that, not sure if Karian wants to hear more, nibbling on his cake while staring down at his pokemon.
Karian Icefang	Karian sigh softly, finding it time to put voice to his thoughts. "When I was a pup...I had a squad. We were close, like yours. We went through many battles together. At least two of them were from a rival clan..." He says, reminiscing a bit. It seemed Mortimer's story had led to one from the old wolf.
Mortimer Balman	Mortimer pauses for a moment, a thought running through his head as he lifted a brow at Karian. "My squad was.. Awful close, Karian. Somehow I don't think yours was quite so close as certain members of mine were."
Karian Icefang	"You'd be surprised..The two rivals turned out to keep the entire squad safe in many battles, But...You reminded me of them...and the one battle were we were massacred. We stood our ground for days, holding the line against a sea of green. But in the end, we were overrun. Hrolf and Fjor..they fell first, fighting. From there...I saw the next 4 fall. Until it was myself and Ulfyr, a clan brother. An ork tried to kill him, but I traded my arm from the elbow down for his life." He admits. He looks over to mort, his eye burning strongly. "I know how close one can grow to their squad...You reminded me of why we are so much alike, Morty."
Mortimer Balman	Mortimer looked a bit surprised. "Didn't think the Space Wolves would allow fraternization in the ranks, the Astartes don't seem the type to allow that sort of thing." But he nods. "Yea.. I lost Jessica and everyone but Kieri in a fight like that.."
Karian Icefang	"OOOH! No, none of that. But we grew to be a family. Making each loss we took that day all the more painful. In any event...we both have a bit of survivor's guilt that we deal with."
Mortimer Balman	Mortimer finally lets out a laugh. "I swears yer thick as a Rhydon's skull somedays.. But yea, I getcha. But you must understand, Karian. I don't feel guilt anymore. Not even regret. I'm just keeping my promise to Jessica, and waiting. My contract with the Goddesses is over. I'm aging again, Karian. I'll live.. Thirty, maybe fourty more years?"
Karian Icefang	"Not on your life, Mort. I'll not outlive you. I will drag you back to the fang and have you implanted like me before I let you die any time soon." Karian says, grinning. He was only half-joking, after all.
Mortimer Balman	Mort reached down to pat Reder a bit. "I'd rather you didn't. You can have Reder when I go, though. He'll last at least another three or four centuries afore his natural lifespan is up. Wartortles live a ridiculously long time."
Karian Icefang	Karian nods, begrudingly. "Aye, Fair enough...Outliving my friends always is a bit...painful." He admits after a moment.
Mortimer Balman	A nod was returned. "I understand. Believe me, I do. But that's okay.. I'll wait fer you on the Other Side. I'm sure yer Emperor and my Gods will be agreeable enough that you can come visit our Heaven, or vice versa."
Karian Icefang	"They'd better, or I'll cause an incident with a smile."